The light and shade in Angus Vinden’s Hunter Valley reds is so welcome. Actually, the whole move ‘back’ to less overt Hunter Valley red wines is in itself a great thing. This The Vinden Headcase Somerset Vineyard Shiraz 2022 comes from the Somerset Vineyard (as the name suggests, Andrew, you idiot) and spends 11 months in barrel. It’s a light, lithe, joyous boysenberry purple wine. Not inky Barossa purple, but that mulberry thing the Hunter does so well. This is a light-touch wine that is juicy and not unripe for 12.7% either, though the extraction is so light that it doesn’t quite progress beyond purple fruit in the structure stakes – even a cru Beaujolais would be a heavier weight. Pretty purple fruit is effortless though, so silken and it’s sneaky long too. Likeable+.

THE VERDICT

• Best drinking: nowish but no hurry either, a decade could pass and this will be interesting
• Score (out of 20): 17.7
• Score (out of 100): 92
• Alcohol %: 12.7
• RRP (in $AUD): 60
• Winery website: https://www.vindenwines.com.au/
• Would I buy it?: a few glasses.